98 Maine Agricultural Experiment Station. 1920. 



The parts below ground showed other striking evidences 

 -of injury. The nature of this injury varied somewhat with the 

 type of planter used, that is, whether the planter deposited the 

 fertilizer above or below the seed piece. It also varied with the 

 amount of borax-containing potash which was applied. For 

 example, the injury where a 4-8-6 fertilizer was used was more 

 severe, as a rule, than where the same amount of 4-8-4 goods 

 from the same manufacturer was applied. 



As might be expected some of the worst cases of injury 

 observed were those where the fertilizer was deposited above 

 the seed piece and the stem of the plant had to grow up through 

 it. On one such field in particular there was a large amount of 

 browning of the stems in the region of the fertilizer. Many 

 cases were found where the stem was entirely cut off and in 

 some instances it had sent out new branches from below, which 

 in turn might or might not be cut off. Injury to the stems be- 

 low ground also frequently occurred where the fertilizer was 

 deposited below the seed piece but this was more often close 

 to the base or point of attachment of the stem. 



The lesions somewhat resembled those caused by Rhizoc- 

 tonia, but were invariably much lighter brown in color and were 

 more likely to entirely encircle the stem. Rhizoctonia may or 

 may not be present as a complicating factor, but there is plenty 

 of evidence in the line of field observations which indicate that 

 neither it nor any other parasitic fungus is a material factor in 

 the production of stem lesions which are attributed to the pres- 

 ence of borax in the fertilizer used. For example, the owner 

 of the field shown in Figure 15 used a fertilizer containing 

 borax up to the point where the stake is placed in the row. At 

 this point he changed to another brand of fertilizer of the same 

 formula but which contained no borax, and immediately con- 

 tinued planting. The plants on the left showed all the typical 

 symptoms of severe borax injury described above and numbers 

 •of them selected at random showed the stem browning and in- 

 jury in practically every case. On the other hand the plants 

 of the portion of the field at the right of the stake, where the 

 other fertilizer was used, were normal in appearance, nearly 

 covered the ground at the time the record was made, and showed 

 no evidence of injury to the parts below ground. 



